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Film Suggestions

Does human trafficking exist, here, in Canada ? Much more than we may think… Factory workers, farm workers, homemakers, masseuses, drug dealers, prostitutes, Canadian or illegal immigrants, men, women and children, this lucrative trafficking takes on many shapes, assumes many faces. From the streets of Montreal to the boulevards of Vancouver, from Avenue Zero along the border, to Aboriginal land, victims of the authorities and help groups, filmmaker Hélène Choquette connects the dots of the vicious circle of this social reality to which we can no longer close our eyes. Sophie Godin.

Invisible City

Directed by Huber Davis. 2009. Length : 75 min.

When social conditions seem to condemn you to follow a chaotic path, how do you get out ? That is the question that Invisible City asks by following two teenagers, Mikey and Kendell, who have both had problems with justice and with their school. Living with their mothers in the public homes of Regent Park in Toronto, which are nearly closed down, they must fight day after day to overcome their daily lives and invent a future for themselves. Sensitively directed by Huber Davis (Hardwood), this documentary gives forceful voice to those that society tends to forget at the margins. Helen Faradji.

In the Name of the Mother and the Son

Directed by Maryse Legagneur. Length : 127 min 11 s. NFB.

In the Name of the Mother and the Son draws a portrait of the Saint-Michel neighbourhood of Montreal, as it follows step by step two young Haitians in their quest for hope and freedom. Whereas their parents left Haiti to settle in Canada and had to restart from zero, James and Le Voyou decide to take flight, each in his own way. The two young men send heartfelt cries to the Haitian women who, like their mothers, sacrificed so much to assure that their children would have better futures. In the Name of the Mother and the Son is also a sensitive story that fights with intelligence the prejudice which young Quebeckers of Haitian origin are unfairly stuck with, still to this day. In French with the option of English sub-titles.

Additionally :

Petites mères de Judith Brès

Through the tender portrait of four young mothers, we discover the disturbing reality of Black teenage-girls, who are twice more likely to carry their pregnancies to term than other girls in the Province of Quebec.

Un quartier à livrer / A Neighbourhood to Deliver

Directed by Feroz Mehdi. 2005. Length : 44 min 19 s. NFB.

For the activist Feroz Mehdi, India is close to Montreal. Riding his bicycle, he becomes a deliveryman for a convenience store in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, one of the poorest neighbourhoods of the city. Thus begins a fascinating cinematic journey that makes us discover the other face of misery, halfway between Quebec and the Indian continent.

Le blues du métro / The Metro Blues

Directed by Mila Aung-Thwin. 2004. Length : 48 min 33s. NFB.

Four in the morning. Musicians scramble to find a seat in one of the 58 designated areas of the Montreal metro where they can play for the travellers who hurry to their destination. Who are these artists and what motivates them to persist in their debatable decision to earn a living by performing in the metro of Montreal ? In English with French sub-titles.

Montréal By Night

Directed by Jean Palardy and Arthur Burrows. 1947. 11 min. NFB.

Montréal, on a summer’s night, presented as a potpourri of contrasting sights and sounds. The Indian village of three hundred years ago is now North America’s second port and, after Paris, the world’s largest French-speaking city. Its historic and religious shrines, its elevators and warehouses, the offices, homes and clubs of its merchant princes, its glittering night-spots and amusement parks, its streets with their outside corkscrew stairways - are all seen as the bright background to the happiness of a boy and a girl.

Dans les villes / In the Cities

Directed by Catherine Martin. 2006. Length : 1 h 27 min

Four people walk in the city. They do not know each other. There is Fanny, who takes care of the trees and who meets the three other people : Josephine, who is reaching the end of her life ; Carole, who is prey to melancholy ; and Jean-Luc, the blind, who will appease Fanny and restore her faith in beauty.

Chez Schwartz

Directed by Garry Beitel. 2006. Length : 1 h 23 min

Chez Schwartz plunges us for one year into the heart of the life of the Hebraic butcher of Montreal – an established point of reference on the Main for 75 years. Filmed throughout the seasons, in the tranquillity of the early morning and the frenzy of midday, amidst the crowds pushing at the doors or the evening customers, Chez Schwartz draws a vibrant cinematic portrait of a greasy spoon renowned throughout the entire world for its smoked meat sandwiches and its distinct character.